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Is Copenhagen’s Nørreport one of 'Europe’s worst' rail stations?

The Local Denmark
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Is Copenhagen’s Nørreport one of 'Europe’s worst' rail stations?
Nørreport on a winter morning. Photo: Simon Skipper/Ritzau Scanpix

Nørreport Station, the busiest rail terminal in Denmark, has fared poorly in a European-wide ranking of train stations in major cities.

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The Consumer Choice Center (CCC) examined Europe's 50 largest railway stations and ranked them in terms of passenger experience, according to a mix of factors ranging from how crowded platforms are and accessibility to the number of destinations and cleanliness.

The judges crowned St. Pancras International in London as the best railway station in Europe. Switzerland’s Zurich followed and Leipzig Central Station in Germany took the third spot.

The European Railway Station Index features mainly northern European railway stations in the top 10. Roma Termini and Milan Centrale are the only two southern European railway stations among the best ranked stations and Moscow Kazansky is the only eastern European railway station in the top 10.

Here is the ranking of the top 10 stations.

Screenshot: Consumer Choice Center

For Nørreport, however, the scores were not entirely impressive.

The station, which sees the highest volume of passengers of any rail terminal in Denmark, was 49th out of the 50 stations on the list.

Although its 6 platforms are considerably fewer in number than other stations in the analysis (Roma Termini has 32, for example, and Zurich 26), the number of passengers per platform at Nørreport is higher at 8.95, compared to 5.9 in Zurich and 4.6 in Rome.

The Rome and Zurich stations both have about three times as many passengers as Nørreport annually, according to the report.

Nørreport gets maximum points for accessibility, but very few of the stations included in the study are sub-standard on this point.

One area where Nørreport does compare poorly is the number of shops and restaurants within the stations. Nørreport has none of either, resulting in a lower score than most of the other stations.

It could be argued, however, that the very close proximity of Nørreport to Copenhagen’s central shopping district and location next to the Torvehallerne food market render shops and restaurants within the station superfluous.

Additionally, although there are no convenience stores or kiosks inside Nørreport, there is a 7-Eleven store next to one of its main entrances and several other stores and supermarkets within a stone’s throw.

A lack of a first-class lounge at Nørreport also detracts from its overall score, but it matches its peers in terms of cleanliness.

Nørreport is directly connected to local rail, given its platforms have regional departures as well as metropolitan S-tog platforms.

The analysis incorrectly states that ride-sharing is available at Nørreport via Uber, a company which stopped operating in Denmark in 2017.

Signage at Nørreport is rated as ’90 percent clear’ but the total of 116 days affected by strikes during the period covered by the analysis is one of the worst performances on the entire list.

With an overall score of 43, CCC puts Nørreport 49th out of the 50 stations in its study.

Is Nørreport as bad is the report would suggest? What experiences have you had at the busy Danish station? Let us know – we’d love to hear your thoughts.

READ ALSO: How to reach famous Copenhagen landmarks with the new City Ring Metro

 

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